


everything sounds like welcome home

by frausorge



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: 2019-2020 NHL Season, M/M, Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24579949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frausorge/pseuds/frausorge
Summary: Pat comes back to them in October.
Relationships: Patrick Marleau/Joe Thornton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31
Collections: Veteran Presents 2020





	everything sounds like welcome home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](https://veteranpresents.dreamwidth.org/716.html?thread=3276#cmt3276) in the Veteran Presents Hockey RPF Fest. Title from 'Til Tuesday.

Pat comes back to them in October, on the back end of the road trip in Chicago. "Fucking chill," Burnzie tells Joe after Pete makes the announcement, but Joe can't seem to do it; his knees keep jogging, his hands twisting a roll of tape back and forth. Cooch comes over and stares him down. 

"Let's go do some two-touch." 

"Are you trying to captain me?" Joe says.

Cooch snorts. "I'm friending you, old man. Get your ass in gear."

Kicking shit around does calm him down a little. But nothing can stop Joe's heart from pounding like a teenager's when Pat actually walks into the room. The first thing he does is to look right at Joe, with a small tentative smile like he's not sure of his welcome. Joe just can't have that. He stands up and yells and claps and cheers till even the kids are going wild with him—how is it possible that almost half the guys dressing tonight never played with Patty before?—and Pat's face changes to his small pleased smile instead.

And they—well, they don't exactly kill it, it's a bear of a game, but they win, they pull out the fucking W for the first time this season, and they all understand that that doesn't make their issues suddenly fixed, but it is a relief to know that not everything is broken. Pat scores twice, because of course he does, and Joe manages an assist on the game-winner, and the mood on the plane is a million times better than it was coming out of Nashville.

After they land and get dismissed to go home, Joe takes a deep breath and turns to Pat. "Do you—" he starts, just as Pat says "Can I—"

They both break off, laughing a little. Joe says, "You want to come over?" It's ass o'clock in the morning, even back on Pacific time, but Pat nods and follows him to his car.

They've barely got their shoes off in Joe's entryway when Pat steps up close and pulls Joe into a hug. Not the chest-bumping, back-slapping kind they did earlier—Pat's arms come around him in a tight hold, and Joe digs his chin into Pat's shoulder and clutches back with two years' worth of arrears to make up.

This should be enough. Joe has Pat back again, on his team and in his house, everything back the way it was before, and he should be satisfied. But he's not. The thing he's kept coming back to since Pat left is front and center in his head now: that he missed Pat in a way he's never missed any other ex-teammate; that he wants something with Pat that they didn't have before. Pat coming back is a gift, a second chance, and if Joe lets them fall right back into the routine of their friendship, he'll have wasted it. He needs to say something. He's going to. Right now.

"Look, Patty—" Joe mumbles. Pat loosens his grip a little, enough to let Joe shift to see his face. 

"Yeah?" he says. 

Joe kisses him.

Pat's hands tighten reflexively on Joe's arms, and then he kisses Joe back. 

Joe doesn't know how long they keep standing there, kissing. He takes a breath every once in a while, and then Pat's mouth is seeking his again; they can't keep apart. Pat's hands move over Joe's shoulders, his arms, his chest. Joe's got one hand wrapped around the nape of Pat's neck and the other at the small of Pat's back. Eventually he lets that one slide lower to grope at Pat's ass. Then Pat does draw back, grinning.

"Joe," is all he says.

"Couch?" Joe asks.

Pat shakes his head. "Take me to bed," he says, and oh, Joe can do that.

Pat's been in Joe's bedroom plenty of times before; he's even slept in Joe's bed with him, that night three years ago when they came back here together and Pat shaved in Joe's bathroom before faceplanting into the mattress. This is better. Pat shucks his shirt and pants, settles himself back against the pillows, and holds an arm out. Joe strips too and stretches out over him, giving in to the impulse to kiss Pat's jaw and cheekbone before turning back to Pat's mouth.

"Are your knees ok like that?" Pat says after a bit.

"My knees are fine, asshole," Joe says, and he nudges one up higher between Pat's legs to prove his point. Pat makes such a sweet sound that Joe has to get his hand down onto Pat's dick to hear it again, and again. He pauses just long enough to grab lube from his nightstand. Pat shifts while he's doing that and nudges at Joe's shoulder till they're lying face to face on their sides. 

"Like this," Pat says. 

Joe kisses him again and gets a slick hand between them to wrap over both their dicks together. Pat lets out another gasp, and his eyes fall closed. Joe keeps watching Pat's face till Pat arches against him and comes. Then Pat pushes Joe's hand out of the way and takes over. Joe presses his forehead against Pat's shoulder and lets himself fall.

Later, after they've cleaned up and kissed over the bathroom sink and gotten back in bed and kissed some more, Pat rests his head against Joe's chest and says, "Could we have been doing this all along?"

Joe tries to think about it. "I don't know," he says. "I got so comfortable with you, I didn't even really think about how we were together till you were gone. And then right when I started getting a clue, you kind of went quiet on me."

"I was afraid you were still mad at me for leaving."

Joe shakes his head. "I was never mad. I totally got why you went. I just didn't want to hold you back from your fresh start."

"Well," Pat says. He pushes back up onto one elbow so that he can kiss Joe again. "So maybe we both could have been smarter about this. But at least we got here."

"We got here," Joe repeats, and the smile Pat gives him is worth everything else that came before.

In February Pat comes back from Doug's office with a look Joe recognizes on his face. Joe knows what offer Doug was going to make Pat, because he made the same one to Joe, and Joe's happy right where he is, but he knows Pat still feels a drive apart from this.

"You're going to take him up on it?" Joe says.

Pat bites his lip. "I want to," he says. "Are you ok with that?"

Joe pulls Pat in and kisses him. "Give it your best shot," he says. "Just come home to me after."

A few weeks later Pat's standing across from Joe in the faceoff circle wearing gold and black. 

"Hey Patty, nice to see you again," Joe says.

Pat rolls his eyes, grinning, and the puck drops.


End file.
